An apparatus for blood oxygenation is known, which comprises a chamber for oxygen, over which there is disposed a chamber for the blood. Both chambers are connected by passageways, through which the oxygen passes under pressure. Over the chamber for the blood there is a bundle of pipes, through which the blood and the oxygen pass, the blood being saturated with oxygen. Over the pipes there is disposed a gas-distributing chamber, through the openings of which the foamed blood passes into a defoaming cylindrical space, containing a microporous material covered by a thin silicon layer. The microporous material envelops part of the upper end of the bundle of oxidizing pipes.
The defoaming cylindrical space and the gas distribution chamber are surrounded by a thin blood filter, concentrically to which there is disposed a conduit for the circulating blood containing a heat-exchange pipe. Beneath the defoaming bed there is disposed the blood reservoir, in which the oxygenated blood is collected.
The disadvangage of this apparatus is that the direct contact between the oxygen and the venous blood takes place at a comparatively high pressure, thus resulting in the traumation of a large portion of the blood elements. This high pressure is determined by the resistance which must be overcome by the blood when it passes through the bundle of pipes, the diameter of which is relatively small, causing an intensive foaming of the blood which is undesirable.
To achieve a defoaming of the thus abundantly foamed blood, it is passed through a porous material, saturated with silicone or enveloped by a thin silicione layer, which combines with the blood elements and is introduced with the oxygen-saturated blood into the human body. The silicone compound causes a postperfusion syndrome, due to the so-called silicone embolism, causing a harmful influence on the central nervous system. A large portion of the blood elements are destroyed as a result of their high velocity during the saturation with oxygen and the interaction with the silicone compound, and they cannot serve their physiological purpose.